Advance (2)

Although the excess of Spiritual Essence was flooding their veins, the hint of discomfort is not as terrible as it seemed. The initial struggle mainly comes from their inexperience on how to handle the energy inside their body.

Long Yuan felt the changes first with the mere cultivation of Foundation Realm's introduction stage.

The layer of verdant-colored gas seemed to have a life of its own as it drilled into Long Yuan's body. And the number of tendrils wasn't just a few but numbered between the thousands.

Long Yuan would be seen like he got squished under an acupuncture board if the verdant-colored gas was thicker as it looks. But miraculously, he doesn't seem to be in a discomfort position at all.

A smile appeared on his face instead. A drop of drool also lingered on the corner of his lips. From its look, he must be having a wild dream related to food.

The thinner the layer of verdant-colored gas gets, the more impurities are pushed out through the pores invaded by the tendrils. But due to Long Yuan's low cultivation, the process was a tediously long one.

Furthermore, a significant portion of the Spiritual Essence was leaking away because his body couldn't retain them like Yuan Ling does. The people that hardly have this opportunity would've cursed Long Yuan for wasting the precious Spiritual Essence like this.

It was unsure if the Spiritual Essence was all leaked out or used to temper Long Yuan's body. But his cultivation is obviously higher than before. The impression of a Foundation Realm's first stage cultivation also seemed more apparent to him.

Long Yuan could effortlessly harvest up to seven to eight Jinqian Wheat Plants in a single breath if he wanted, based on his current strength. Of course, this was not something worthy of mentioning at all.

The most significant change on Long Yuan shouldn't be how many plants he could harvest from a single breath, but the circulation of Spiritual Essence in what he's doing.

Part of the reason cultivation strength is essential here is because they're deeply rooted in everything, from lifestyle to fighting. And to farmers like them, the more Spiritual Essence they're providing back to what they're doing, the better the reward would be.

For example, the steamed bun's differences between Long Yuan and Yuan Ling. They both could imitate one another in the process of making the bun. Still, the amount of Spiritual Essence that could reside inside the end product would be different.

Even if Yuan Ling forced more Spiritual Essence in her process to create the bun, it would still lack compared to what Long Yuan could do with one-fifth of the Spiritual Essence she used.

Long Yuan fell back into his deep slumber after the verdant-colored gas had vanished entirely from his body. This also means that the excess of Spiritual Essence from the steamed bun and Silvergrass Fruit he ate was digested.

Meanwhile, it was far from over to the person sleeping barely two meters away from Long Yuan's bed.

Unlike Long Yuan, Yuan Ling's cultivation is more profound than him by a few folds. Of course, this wasn't because she had more to eat than her beloved older brother. The profoundness of her cultivation mainly came from her own cultivation talent.

Yuan Ling's cultivation could be increased by leap and bound if only she had access just like the wealthy girl's daily.

Still, her ability to push her cultivation to the late Foundation Realm's second stage shows how diligent and talented Yuan Ling was. Even those ten years older than her would find it difficult to reach the second stage using the same resources.

And with Long Yuan's arrival to this world, her fate is bound to change drastically. The fact already can be seen from how many days it took her to accumulate enough Spiritual Essence this time.

Unlike her uneducated older brother, Yuan Ling had access to the academy's cultivation library. Although the number of overpowered techniques is limited, it was still enough to solidify their cultivation.

Plus, techniques weren't the only valuable records inside the library. It was also filled with inspirations, thoughts, intents, thesis, and guides in many other subjects.

All of these were the accumulation of the Sprouting Village from its establishment until now. Without this foundation, attracting the famous sects to seek promising disciples would be challenging.

Yuan Ling is still lying on her bed with both eyes tightly closed.

Her experience is somewhat similar to Long Yuan. The leaking Spiritual Essence from her is also lesser compared to Long Yuan.

This is precisely the advantage between the educated and the non-educated. Although the technique was openly attainable to the regular people, only a tiny fraction of people could read them, let aside understanding, and practice it.

Plus, because the people hardly have access to richer food, produce, and treasures brimming with Spiritual Essence, it makes no sense to learn on purpose. Instead of adding some headaches, people would rather use their time efficiently to produce more food.

While one person thinking this way could hardly affect the world, it was an entirely different matter when the entire village and its villager collectively agreed. And that's how the chaste system slowly appeared between them.

The tendrils created from the green-colored gas behaved the same as what Long Yuan experienced. Still, there's a hint of differences here.

Perhaps because the amount of impurity in her body was lesser compared to Long Yuan, there's barely anything expelled from her.

But this doesn't mean her body is now free from impurity.

Instead, the Spiritual Essence would attack deeper into her body, focusing on hidden parts between the flesh, bone, and tendons searching for impurities.

This process was precisely part of the first three-stage of Foundation Realm, known as impurity removal. The first stage mainly focuses on the outer, the second stage on the inner, and in-depth in the third stage.

For Yuan Ling to undergo this kind of process means her cultivation is officially entered the Foundation Realm's third stage. It was apparent from how fair she looked after the Spiritual Essence expelled all the unwanted sebum that made Yuan Ling's face appear to be oily.

And obviously, getting promoted to the third stage also means it would cost more Spiritual Essence for the body tempering to happen. The five steamed buns' essences inside Yuan Ling's body could only last longer than Long Yuan for half an hour.

Similar to her beloved older brother's symptom, Yuan Ling went into a deep slumber as well.

-----

'Weird... How can that lass be still sleeping? Perhaps I got her too tired yesterday from helping me with the flour?' Long Yuan took a glance at the girl.

Her sleeping manner would definitely have to be fixed slightly if she gets married in the next few years.

Shaking his head and walking out of the house, Long Yuan lit the fire for the stove and then boiled some water to wash their face later. He also noticed a weird layer of filth sticking on his body.

'The hell with this flaky, dead skin-like thing on me? Am I a snake that sheds its scales at night?' Long Yuan cussed and started to peel the flakes sticking on his body. It took him a while, but everything was much easier when hot water was included in his effort.

Long Yuan brought the bowl of Silvergrass Fruits out of the steamer before he got the stove ready for cooking afterward.

'Not bad. The fruit concentrate turned out beautifully. This would be good to make some fruity steamed buns for the lass.' Long Yuan muttered by himself.

Using the water scooper to scoop two parts of the Wheat Flour out, Long Yuan added some lukewarm water to start kneading a plain, tasteless dough.

After the dough was kneaded enough to be left aside under a damp cloth, Long Yuan repeated the same process again, but with the fruit concentrate this time.

The more watery part of the concentrate was poured in replacement for water. The sugar content in the water made the dough's texture change slightly. This is why Long Yuan kneaded this dough with lesser water than usual.

Leaving the second dough aside, Long Yuan's attention returned to the first dough that's matured slightly. The natural gluten inside is also fully formed, making the dough firmer than before.

With the blunt clever in his hand, Long Yuan cut the dough into eight portions and made it into a shape of a croissant this time. But without the butter layered in between, the gap in between quickly stuck together into one.

After putting the eight croissant-like Mantous into the lowest stack of the steamer, Long Yuan started to work with the second dough kneaded with fruit concentrate.

The stickiness of the dough made it harder for him to knead it without making a mess. But luckily, this problem can be solved by adding more flour while kneading.

Of course, there's a reason for Long Yuan to put effort into making this dough. Using a rolling pin he found from going around the house yesterday, Long Yuan then rolled the dough into a thin sheet before shifting his attention somewhere else.

He quickly mashed the smaller Silvergrass Fruits before adding them above the dough. The sheet of dough was then rolled into a log shape before portioning.

The remaining Silvergrass Fruit with the size of olive was added as the last touch before he arranged them on the upper steaming rack.

By the time Yuan Ling stepped out of the house, she was bombarded by the aroma from the concentrated Silvergrass Fruit.

But that was nothing shocking compared to the cultivation strength Long Yuan could feel from her standing nearby.

'This girl... Did her cultivation get promoted last night?' Long Yuan smiled.